Dueling Blowhards

28012008

Hopefully by now you’ve had enough time to digest the OR of P. G. T. Beauregard – aka Bory, aka The Creole, aka The Little Napoleon – and the flurry of endorsements and such which it generated (here and here).It’s a testament to the adaptability of the ecology of Virginia that two gasbags of such enormity, Bory and Davis, could coexist there without bringing on some sort of climatologic calamity. Yikes!!!Like the one he had with Joe Johnston, Davis’s contentious relationship with the Creole would have far reaching effects for the Confederacy.

Hopefully you caught Beauregard’s mention of Ayres’s (formerly Sherman’s) battery.It seems he was one of the few to get it right.

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

The Project

This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!